X3D is a royalty-free ISO/IEC standard for declaratively representing

3D computer graphics 3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for t ...

. File format support includes

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...

, ClassicVRML, Compressed Binary Encoding (CBE) and a draft JSON encoding. X3D became the successor to the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) in 2001. X3D features extensions to VRML (e.g. CAD,

geospatial Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth (a geographic location or geographic position). It is also ca ...

humanoid animation Humanoid Animation (HAnim) is an approved ISO and IEC standard for humanoid modeling and animation. HAnim defines a specification for defining interchangeable human figures so that those characters can be used across a variety of 3D games and simul ...

NURBS Non-uniform rational basis spline (NURBS) is a mathematical model using B-spline, basis splines (B-splines) that is commonly used in computer graphics for representing curves and Surface (mathematics), surfaces. It offers great flexibility and pr ...

, etc.), the ability to encode the scene using an XML syntax as well as the

Open Inventor Open Inventor, originally IRIS Inventor, is a C++ object-oriented retained mode 3D graphics toolkit designed by SGI to provide a higher layer of programming for OpenGL. Its main goals are better programmer convenience and efficiency. Open Inven ...

-like syntax of VRML97, or

binary Binary may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1) * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical operation that ta ...

formatting, and enhanced application programming interfaces (

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

s). The X3D extension supports multi-stage and multi-texture rendering; it also supports shading with

lightmap A lightmap is a data structure used in lightmapping, a form of surface caching in which the brightness of surfaces in a virtual scene is pre-calculated and stored in texture maps for later use. Lightmaps are most commonly applied to static o ...

and normalmap. Starting in 2010, X3D has supported deferred rendering architecture. Now X3D can import SSAO, CSM and Realtime Environment Reflection/Lighting. The user can also use optimizations including BSP/QuadTree/OctTree or culling in the X3D scene. X3D can work with other open source standards including XML, DOM and

XPath XPath (XML Path Language) is an expression language designed to support the query or transformation of XML documents. It was defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and can be used to compute values (e.g., strings, numbers, or Boolean v ...

Standardization

X3D defines several profiles (sets of components) for various levels of capability including X3D Core, X3D Interchange, X3D Interactive, X3D CADInterchange, X3D Immersive, and X3D Full. Browser makers can define their own component extensions prior to submitting them for standardisation by the

Web3D Consortium Web3D Consortium is an international not-for-profit, member-funded industry consortium, originally founded in 1997. Web3D Consortium members from governmental, nonprofit and research organizations worldwide, including working alongside individu ...

. Formal review and approval is then performed by

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

/ IEC. Liaison and cooperation agreements are also in place between the

and the

World Wide Web Consortium The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working ...

(W3C),

Open Geospatial Consortium The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), an international voluntary consensus standards organization for geospatial content and location-based services, sensor web and Internet of Things, GIS data processing and data sharing. It originated in 199 ...

(OGC),

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is the standard for the communication and management of medical imaging information and related data. DICOM is most commonly used for storing and transmitting medical images enabling the inte ...

(DICOM) and the

Khronos Group The Khronos Group, Inc. is an open, non-profit, member-driven consortium of 170 organizations developing, publishing and maintaining royalty-free interoperability standards for 3D graphics, virtual reality, augmented reality, parallel computation ...

. A subset of X3D is XMT-A, a variant of XMT, defined in

MPEG-4 Part 11 MPEG-4 Part 11 ''Scene description and application engine'' was published as ISO/IEC 14496-11 in 2005. MPEG-4 Part 11 is also known as BIFS, XMT, MPEG-J. It defines: * the coded representation of the spatio-temporal positioning of audio-visual obje ...

. It was designed to provide a link between X3D and 3D content in MPEG-4 (BIFS). The abstract specification for X3D (ISO/IEC 19775) was first approved by the ISO in 2004. The XML and ClassicVRML encodings for X3D (ISO/IEC 19776) were first approved in 2005.

Applications

There are several applications, most of which are open-source software, which natively parse and interpret X3D files, including the 3D graphics and animation editor

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender container with a rotating me ...

and the Sun Microsystems virtual world client

Project Wonderland Open Wonderland (originally Project Wonderland) is a Java open-source toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds. Within those worlds, users can communicate with high-fidelity, immersive audio, share live desktop applications and doc ...

. An X3D applet is a software program that runs within a web browser and displays content in 3D, using OpenGL 3D graphics technology to display X3D content in several different browsers (IE, Safari, Firefox) across several different operating systems (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux). However, X3D has not received as wide acceptance as that of other, more notable software applications. In the 2000s, many companies such as Bitmanagement improved the quality level of virtual effects in X3D to the quality level of DirectX 9.0c, but at the expense of using proprietary solutions. All main features including game modeling are already complete. They include multi-pass render with low level setting for Z-buffer, BlendOp, AlphaOp, Stencil, Multi-texture, Shader with HLSL and

GLSL OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) is a high-level shading language with a syntax based on the C programming language. It was created by the OpenGL ARB (OpenGL Architecture Review Board) to give developers more direct control of the graphics pipelin ...

support, real-time Render To Texture, Multi Render Target (MRT) and post-processing. Many demos shows that X3D already supports

normal mapping In 3D computer graphics, normal mapping, or Dot3 bump mapping, is a texture mapping technique used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents – an implementation of bump mapping. It is used to add details without using more polygons. A common ...

, SSAO, CSM and real-time environment reflection along with other virtual effects. Striving to become the 3D standard for the Web, X3D is designed to be as integrated into

HTML5 HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...

pages as other XML standards such as

MathML Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) is a mathematical markup language, an application of XML for describing mathematical notations and capturing both its structure and content. It aims at integrating mathematical formulae into World Wide W ...

and SVG. X3DOM is a proposed syntax model and its implementation as a script library that demonstrates how this integration can be achieved without a browser plugin, using only

WebGL WebGL (Short for Web Graphics Library) is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins. WebGL is fully integrated with other web standards, allowing GPU-accelera ...

and JavaScript.

Example

The VRML representation is the same as , except that the version line is changed to reflect the X3D profile (#X3D V3.2 utf8). For JSON and binary formats, see web3D for a list of tools.

Alternatives

: JavaScript API for rendering interactive 3D graphics and 2D graphics within any compatible web browser, managed by the Khronos Group *

3DMLW 3DMLW (''3D computer graphics, 3D Markup Language, Markup Language for World Wide Web, Web'') is a discontinued open-source project, and a XML, XML-based Markup Language for representing interactive 3D computer graphics, 3D and 2D computer graphic ...

: 3D Markup Language for Web *

glTF glTF is a standard file format for three-dimensional scenes and models. A glTF file uses one of two possible file extensions: .gltf (JSON/ASCII) or .glb ( binary). Both .gltf and .glb files may reference external binary and texture resources. A ...

: a standard file format for three-dimensional scenes and models managed by the Khronos Group *

COLLADA COLLADA (for ''COLLA''borative ''D''esign ''A''ctivity) is an interchange file format for interactive 3D applications. It is managed by the nonprofit technology consortium, the Khronos Group, and has been adopted by ISO as a publicly available ...

: interchange file format for interactive 3D applications, managed by the Khronos Group *

O3D O3D is an open-source (BSD license) JavaScript APIO3D Project Page
from Google Code created by U3D Universal 3D (U3D) is a compressed file format standard for 3D computer graphics data. The format was defined by a special consortium called ''3D Industry Forum'' that brought together a diverse group of companies and organizations, including ...

: Ecma International standard ECMA-363 *

VRML VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language, pronounced ''vermal'' or by its initials, originally—before 1995—known as the Virtual Reality Markup Language) is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional (3D) interactive vector graph ...

: precursor of X3D * 3MF: An XML-based format that includes 3D additive manufacturing data such as material properties. *

A-Frame An A-frame is a basic structure designed to bear a load in a lightweight economical manner. The simplest form of an A-frame is two similarly sized beams, arranged in an angle of 45 degrees or less, attached at the top, like an uppercase lette ...

: An HTML-based declarative 3D scene-graph language and interaction framework commonly used for WebVR

References

External links